Lean Startup Machine - 14 April 2013 - How the "Datable" startup team became "Kinection" - the pivot from daters to job seekers. (Original deck by Jason Lee and team - edited deck by Will K.)

1. Lean Startup
New York City – April 14th
Machine

2. ORIGINAL PITCH
DATABLE = ♥ + ✓
Problem
• Lack of honesty in online dating
profiles
Project Name
• Datable
High Level Pitch
• Online Dating Profile Verification,
Klout for Dating

3. DATABLE = ♥ + ✓
ONLINE DATING PROFILE VERIFICATION
CUSTOMER PROBLEM RISKIEST
HYPOTHESIS HYPOTHESIS ASSUMPTION
ONLINE INACCURATE PEOPLE CARE
DATING SITE OF ONLINE ABOUT
USERS PROFILES PROFILE
ACCURACY

4. DATABLE = ♥ + ✓
VALIDATION PROCESS
FACE TO FACE VALIDATION ONLINE VALIDATION
• 32 People Interviewed • Anonymous profile
• 7 Online Daters created
• Only 2 online daters cared • Several messages sent
about online profile • 1 lengthy reply and one
accuracy (The Risk unsolicited date proposal
Assumption)

5. DATABLE ≠ ♥ + ✓
NO LOVE IN THE HEART OF THE CITY
CUSTOMER PROBLEM RISKIEST
HYPOTHESIS HYPOTHESIS ASSUMPTION
ONLINE DATERS DON’T PEOPLE CARE
DATING SITE TRUST INFO ABOUT
USERS IN PROFILE PROFILE
ACCURACY
PIVOT !

6. KINECTION
THE PIVOT
CUSTOMER PROBLEM RISKIEST
HYPOTHESIS HYPOTHESIS ASSUMPTION
JOB SO MANY EXISTING
SEEKERS LEADS, SO TOOLS ARE
LITTLE TIME NOT
SUFFICIENT

7. KINECTION
SOLUTION VALIDATION
CUSTOMER PROBLEM HYPOTHESIS
HYPOTHESIS SO MANY LEADS, GETTING
SO LITTLE TIME THROUGH THE
FUNNEL
JOB
SEEKERS
SOLUTION HYPOTHESIS
RELEVANCY PRIORITIZE & PUSH
ALGORITH FOR RANK BEST NOTIFICATION
CONTACTS CONTACTS AT ON KEY
POTENTIAL CONTACTS
COMPANIES FOLLOWED

8. KINECTION
TESTIMONIALS

9. PROCESS MAP
HYPOTHESIS VERIFICATION
Experimen 1 2 3 4 5
ts
Customer Online Dating Job Seekers Job Seekers Current Job Current Job
Site Users w/in the past 2 w/in the past 2 Seekers Seekers
yrs yrs Human
People Care Need To Reach Contact Recommendations to
Existing Tools
Riskiest People Care
About Honesty NeedTo Network
Out To Reach Ranking Is Get Closer To The
Insufficient
Assumption About Honesty Out To Network Useful Ideal Job
Result 2/7; 32 total 11/11 10/11 2/5 4/5
Invalidated Validated Validated Validated Validated
Learned Difficulty in Existing Tools People Are More Cost Might Be Difficulty
gathering data Creates Sense Reluctant To a Sensitive Utilizing
due to the of Uncertainties. Initiate Contact Issue. Contact List
personal From Their Especially If
nature of topic. Network. You Don’t
Need new Have a
customer. Specific End
Goal.
Decision Pivot Persevere. Move Persevere. Move Persevere. Persevere.
onto Next onto Next Move Onto

10. KINECTION
KEY PIVOT POINTS:
• SEARCHING FOR A JOB, like DATING - is about “who you
know” and the relationships you build
• EVERYONE we talked to said “searching for a job sux” and
they wish it would have gone faster
• WE SAID: Let’s increase the velocity of the job search process
• LESS IS MORE: Kinection pushes FEWER recommended
contact actions to the user, rather than more – where the
timeliness and quality of contact’s proximity to a referral wins
out over quantity.
• KINECTION KARMA POINTS – you never know who matters
on your career path – so it pays to build good karma with
Kinection.
• Success Metrics: 100 unique Site visits – 13% signup rate since midnight April 13th –
with minimal marketing.

11. KINECTION
MVP - BIG DATA = BEHAVIORAL ANALYTICS FROM CONTACTS IN YOUR SOCIAL GRAPH
kinection
   Will works at XYZ
and tweeted about
#LeanNYC connect
with him now!
bit.ly/k42
KINECTION VALUE PROPOSITION – CONCISE, RELEVANT, ACTIONABLE
REFFERAL RANKING KINECTION FLOW KINECTION
ENGINE PUSH NOTIFICATIONS KARMA POINTS

12. KINECTION
NEXT STEPS
RISKIEST ASSUMPTION:
• Are job searchers willing to pay? If not, other monetization paths?
BIG VISION:
• Time: There are only so many hours in the day – why waste time on people
who can’t connect you to hiring managers? Kinection is like a virtual
recruiter – pointing you in the direction of the exact people you need to talk
to.
• Accuracy: Most people admit that personal networks are the most powerful
for job searching – but we’re still focusing on the job and not improving the
relevancy of points of contact. Kinection energizes the propensity that the
people you contact will refer you for the job you want.
• Incentive: Kinection Karma Points – the “What’s My Motivation?” of
referral tools. Users both “pay it forward” and help themselves by accruing
points they can use to unlock rewards and discount codes on affiliate sites
(e.g.- SkillShare, General Assembly, Amazon Web Services).
HOW DO WE GET THERE:
• Rock star team, recruit users by illustrating value prop, collect/build data
models

13. KINECTION
THE TEAM
(left to right)
• Jason Lee - Lead
COO
• (initial concept and pitch deck)
• Patrizia Marsura CTO
• Jasmin Chun CMO
• Will Kreth CEO
• (pivot concept and revised deck)
• Christopher Lee CFO